The Fellowship of the Dance
--by Egon Starcollector (with help and prompting from Big Mama)
Disclaimer: Honey, Tolkien isn't even on my family tree!
The Fellowship were sitting idly around the campfire. Aragorn was polishing his sword, Sam was snoring loudly, and Merry was making faces at Gimli. In other words, they were bored.
Pippin was cooking a thick stew over the campfire. It was the same thick stew they'd eaten virtually every time they could sit down to a hot meal. Pippin and the other hobbits were as tired of cooking it as they were of eating it.
Pippin decided that the least he could do was vary the recipe a little. He poked around the clearing and eventually found some odd mushrooms. The cups were curiously inverted so that they resembled shoes. Pippin shrugged it off and added the mushrooms to the stew.
"Soup's on!"
"Yay."
"Goody."
"Am I really hungry? Hmmm...."
"Oh come on guys, I changed the recipe. You'll love it!"
The other three hobbits looked at each other. The last time Pippin had uttered those words, they'd been burping blue-green bubbles for a week. Nevertheless, they were sufficiently bored to try anything.
"You know...this really isn't bad," Legolas commented.
"That's reassuring, from an *immortal,*" Gimli countered. "He could have poisoned the rest of us!"
"Hey!"
"Actually, the prince of Mirkwood is correct...this stew tastes much better than it did," said Aragorn. That settled it for the hobbits. They all ate their fill.
After dinner, the Fellowship sat chatting relatively contentedly around the fire. Suddenly, Aragorn sprang to his feet and began leaping madly through the air--followed, oddly enough, by Legolas and Gimli.
"What the--?" spluttered Frodo before he, too, began leaping and pirouetting.
"Argh! My feet! I can't control my feet...I just have to DANCE!" yelled Merry. Within moments, all nine of them were jumping and spinning.
"What is this?" Pippin gasped.
"'The Nutcracker Ballet,'" Gandalf replied.
"No, no, this sudden urge to dance!"
"I don't know! It's as if we're under a spell! What *did* you add to that stew?" Gandalf demanded as he and Boromir did the Dance of the Coffee.
"Just some mushrooms!"
"Mushrooms? What kind?"
"I don't know!"
"Well what did they look like?"
"Um...shoes! They had these funny tops that looked like shoes!"
Gandalf's expression changed to one of utter horror--and not merely because Aragorn and Frodo had misstepped the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy. "Those were cursed mushrooms! Fool of a Took!"
--by Egon Starcollector (with help and prompting from Big Mama)
Disclaimer: Honey, Tolkien isn't even on my family tree!
The Fellowship were sitting idly around the campfire. Aragorn was polishing his sword, Sam was snoring loudly, and Merry was making faces at Gimli. In other words, they were bored.
Pippin was cooking a thick stew over the campfire. It was the same thick stew they'd eaten virtually every time they could sit down to a hot meal. Pippin and the other hobbits were as tired of cooking it as they were of eating it.
Pippin decided that the least he could do was vary the recipe a little. He poked around the clearing and eventually found some odd mushrooms. The cups were curiously inverted so that they resembled shoes. Pippin shrugged it off and added the mushrooms to the stew.
"Soup's on!"
"Yay."
"Goody."
"Am I really hungry? Hmmm...."
"Oh come on guys, I changed the recipe. You'll love it!"
The other three hobbits looked at each other. The last time Pippin had uttered those words, they'd been burping blue-green bubbles for a week. Nevertheless, they were sufficiently bored to try anything.
"You know...this really isn't bad," Legolas commented.
"That's reassuring, from an *immortal,*" Gimli countered. "He could have poisoned the rest of us!"
"Hey!"
"Actually, the prince of Mirkwood is correct...this stew tastes much better than it did," said Aragorn. That settled it for the hobbits. They all ate their fill.
After dinner, the Fellowship sat chatting relatively contentedly around the fire. Suddenly, Aragorn sprang to his feet and began leaping madly through the air--followed, oddly enough, by Legolas and Gimli.
"What the--?" spluttered Frodo before he, too, began leaping and pirouetting.
"Argh! My feet! I can't control my feet...I just have to DANCE!" yelled Merry. Within moments, all nine of them were jumping and spinning.
"What is this?" Pippin gasped.
"'The Nutcracker Ballet,'" Gandalf replied.
"No, no, this sudden urge to dance!"
"I don't know! It's as if we're under a spell! What *did* you add to that stew?" Gandalf demanded as he and Boromir did the Dance of the Coffee.
"Just some mushrooms!"
"Mushrooms? What kind?"
"I don't know!"
"Well what did they look like?"
"Um...shoes! They had these funny tops that looked like shoes!"
Gandalf's expression changed to one of utter horror--and not merely because Aragorn and Frodo had misstepped the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy. "Those were cursed mushrooms! Fool of a Took!"